Love of reading

I am an avid reader, and like most people I really treasure books. I have admired Mary Ellen Bartley's muted color palate in this series for a long time. In her chalky whites Mary Ellen presents us with books as an object of the every day, yet they seem to have a life of their own, they stand in line, tower high and offer volumes of different interpretations.

When skies are clear and blue

Today I came upon Jonathan Chritchley's work and couldn't get enough of his sails. At the moment I have constantly summer on my mind, enjoying the outside, dreaming of the secret of the stars and wish I would have time for sailing lessons.

Scenic wonders

We have summer over here and for some reason I seem to be constantly running behind, but better then putting it off to publish something for the next few weeks, I thought I present you these engaging landscapes by Cécilia Jauniau.
"Having photographed the landscape for a number of years and specifically working with trees and in the forest I found, without consciously thinking about it, that it was a great learning experience for me in terms of organizing elements." John Sexton

From the unconscious

I have been meaning to post these images By Dieter de Lathauwer for a while, but never got around to it. These images are from his series "l'introduction à l'aventure du rêve lucide" (Introduction to the adventure of the lucid dream). I have tried, but I am certain that I can not find words any better than Arthur Schopenhauer's: "How very paltry and limited the normal human intellect is, and how little lucidity there is in the human consciousness, may be judged from the fact that, despite the ephemeral brevity of human life, the uncertainty of our existence and the countless enigmas which press upon us from all sides, everyone does not continually and ceaselessly philosophize, but that only the rarest of exceptions do." Dieter's images have a sense of wonder about them. There is a certain authenticity in his image making, that is theatrical and fictional at the same time.

Roaming to find the light

A couple of weeks ago I received an email from Koichi Nishiyama a japanese artist and photographer sharing his images. It came to no surprise that I had seen his images already and had marked him on my ever increasing list to contact in the near future. I was very impressed by his series "Nowhere" and here is his statement about this work.

"There was a forest near the house where I lived when I was a child.
When the forest existed, I felt the connection with a deep part in the world there.
However, the forest was destroyed in a long term, and only the process of the loss and its memory were kept in my mind. I am living in a place which is a little distant from there at the present day. When I look at the scenery in periphery of the city where I live, I can see a new contemporary scenery which overlaps with the past scenery.
I keep walking and roaming around the place until it leads me to my destination.
And the subdued light is shining on the space which illuminates my memory in the past.
At that time, I realize that I can regain the connection with the world."

The last couple of weeks

As I was lying in bed last night, I composed a truly charming blog entry, but unfortunately I didnt get up to write it, instead I thought I would remember.... Well we all know how that goes..., so today I am falling over every word and sentences seem to be too long to make sense - but I will try anyway.
Last week I had the pleasure to fly to New Zealand for a workshop with Todd Hido and Bruce Gilden, who unfortunately couldn't make it. Instead Paul Graham was kind enough to interrupt his holiday and drop in for a morning session. I enjoy listening artists talk about their work, learn about their process - how they make sense of their pictures and ultimately learn something about them. I have always enjoyed Paul's bleached out "American Night" but I never really understood the relationship in that series. Hearing him speak about his work I have gained a valuable insight into his image making, editing and exhibiting process. Harvey Benge who organised this workshop along with Neil Cameron shared with us his passion on publishing and presented some of his published books.
But I would like to return to Todd Hido - I discovered his website maybe two years ago and was instantly in love with his images along with the text by A. M. Homes. It is funny how we are drawn to images we are ultimately aiming to achieve. I have been looking at his new book "A road divided" for about forever, but havnt had the funds to purchase it yet. It is on top of the list which seems to be getting constantly longer and longer.
Todd is a very generous and gracious teacher and seeing his contact sheets, plus hearing him talk about his work, you get a sense of his passion, which translate into stunning images - which over the next few years (in my humble opinion) will sky rocket. He is currently showing "Fragmented Narratives" at Silverstein I believe an absolute must go to exhibition if you are in NY (January 06 - February 12). Wish I was, but I am as far as one can get from NY.

At the workshop we had the opportunity to look through lots of books and my two absolute favorite were Alec Soth "Broken Manual" and Todd Hido's "A road divided". They are both stunning in their execution, luxuriate, designed with lots of care and elegance. You simple never want to let them out of your hands. They both use high quality paper, the images are enchanting and captivating and the concept an adventure. "Broken Manual" comes with a price tag of $950 - which unfortunately is out of my reach, to ever own such a book, so it was bliss to hold it in my hands.

Another bonus was to got to know some amazing NZ artists and I hope to share their work here over the coming weeks.

Finally I would like to thank Regional Arts Victoria and the lovely people who work there - for supporting me with a grant and make this workshop in NZ possible. Without this grant, I would not have been able to go to workshop, learn about the art of photography, editing and hopefully finding a way to get my images in front of more people.

Mutton and milk

When I was 19 I started traveling the world and stopped when I was 25 to settle in Australia. So I havnt had a chance to travel per se for a while, but still remember that feeling of freedom, of waking up in a new place, not knowing where to go next, of great happiness and daily adventures (happy to report this hasn't changed). Tammy Law takes us to the "Grasslands, Inner Mongolia" where she spent some time with a local family. And it seems her images from the present are already haunted by their future.

Understanding loneliness

The other day I discovered White Columns and whilst looking through the artists registry I came upon Sean McFarland. I have a soft spot for polaroids and his peaceful images create a dreamlike narrative where he is the fiction writer of his solitude.

Even a mouse can be lonely

Yesterday I stumbled upon Walker Pickering's "Parable of a mouse" and was delighted. Reading images is like deciphering poetry... sometimes we do not have to break them down, take them apart in order to appreciate them. I have seen many dress up/costume images, but these images stand out from the crowd. They inspired me to make up all kinds of adventures I could take it with me.

One spot available

We have one spot available for the February UYW issue. It will be a double edition in collaboration with Fabio Severo and focuses on light. So here is your chance - send us your website with a series you think works well and we will choose one photographer to publish in UYW.

Romka magazine

Joscha from Germany send me news of his great new publication "ROMKA"
36 artists from 19 countries share their personal favorite photographs.
100 pages at 14x21cm, offset print on recycling paper, edition of 1.000.
EUR 5 + S&H

Happy new year

Every new year comes with a lot of new dreams and inspiration. Today I became aware of John Maloof's blog Vivian Maier - Her discovered work and like most of you I like a good mystery, big dreams and seeing it all happen. Vivian was an incredible artist and thanks to John's hard work we can see her work now. John is also trying to raise funds to make a documentary, so head over and help make the project a reality. I am a little sad that Vivian probably never received much attention while she was still alive, but at the same time it inspires me. These days I think everyone wants to be a superstar, a hero and hopefully without working too hard and in record time... What inspires me about her work is that she loved what she did - she had a sense of humor, an amazing eye for details and she took images for herself. I absolutely love that she had 100's of undeveloped rolls of film just sitting there. I believe the act of taking the photograph was what inspired her and after that moment had passed - she (maybe) didnt care. She never had to worry about selling her images, finding a gallery, etc, she just took her images and (hopefully) was happy. I am sure - vee4ry so often she would have wondered why she continued to take images, but she did and thankfully never stopped. She simply did what she wanted to do and what she did best - take photos and now thanks to John dedication he is sharing her work.
Other great resources about Vivian here and here.